After a magical week of improbable comebacks, reality set in for Jack Draper when he retired due to injury after losing the first two units of his fourth-round match against Carlos Alcaraz.
Draper had taken his once-fragile frame to new extremes with three straight five-point games, each time coming back from two units down.
But after 12 hours and 34 minutes came the physical reckoning and the 23-year-old was in no position to test Alcaraz’s power.
“It’s not the way I wanted to go through,” said the 21-year-old third seed, who is chasing his career Grand Slam here this fortnight. “I’m sad for Jack, he’s a good person and doesn’t deserve to get injured. He couldn’t prepare well for the season, we had to train together for a week (in Alicante).
“I am sure he will come back strong, as always.”
The first set was close, but that had more to do with Alcaraz’s waywardness than anything coming from Draper’s racquet.
Jack Draper was painfully forced to withdraw from his fourth round clash against Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday afternoon.
The British star had lost two units in the match, but appeared to be battling an injury before opting to retire during the intermission.
Alcaraz, 21, showed his class by writing a message to Draper on the television camera screen after advancing to the quarterfinals. He wrote: ‘You’ll be where you deserve to get well soon Jack!’
Playing Alcaraz seems like a peculiar experience. He’ll make plenty of unforced errors, but he can also conjure up winners from the most unlikely positions. He can make his opponent look like a spectator, Alcaraz’s free jazz chorus, and Draper never felt like he had much agency in the match.
Alcaraz danced well inside the baseline to attack Draper’s second serve and generally tried to keep points as short as possible, which one imagines suited Draper given his weakened state. After only two games he was already shaking his left leg.
As he has done to some extent all week, Draper was struggling to time his forehand when he really tried to increase the power. He hit a couple so dramatically that they flew miles into the stands.
A messy set with break points both ways reached 5-3 with Alcaraz serving for the set. But he committed a pair of double faults and hit a forehand into the purple while serving, giving Draper a break point. Alcaraz then put a soft cut into the top of the net to grant a completely unnecessary break.
-Could Draper steal this set? Alcaraz’s messy play gave him a chance but, serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Draper again tried to hit a big forehand and again missed long. That gave Alcaraz two set points at 15-40 and in the second he hit a forehand that beat Draper on the purple.
After the first set, Draper left the court to call a medical timeout. He had been shaking his left leg and then seemed to point at his hip, which bothered him during the preseason, but after three fives in a row it was inevitable that his body would groan.
Alcaraz has lost only once in 55 Grand Slam matches in which he won the first set, so Draper’s chances were effectively nil.
Draper was moving quite strongly now and several times he didn’t even try to regain his position after being dragged out, just watching Alcaraz caress the ball into the open court.
The Spaniard, who aspires to win his first Australian Open title, took the first two units 5-7 and 6-1 and looked in good form on the court.
Draper had played three exciting five-unit matches in the lead-up to this match and, despite suffering an injury, fought hard against Alcaraz, saving eight break points.
Alcaraz will now advance to play the winner of tonight’s clash between Novak Djokovic and Jiri Lehecka.
Draper, 23, has enjoyed an excellent Australian Open so far, notably showing his resilience in front of a partisan Australian crowd to come from behind and beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in the second round.
The contrast with the man on the other side of the network was profound; Draper hit a nice tight dropshot and Alcaraz located it and hit a delightful backhand crosscourt winner.
For the first time the finger came out wagging, celebrating another clip from Alcaraz’s highlight reel.
There were no more celebrations after that; it would have been rude considering how quickly Draper’s physical condition was deteriorating.
Surprisingly, Draper headed to his chair at the end of the second set: Alcaraz was half waiting in the purple for the expected resignation. But after thinking about it for a few seconds, maybe a sign from his coaches? – Draper indeed fell on his sword.
